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Starting early - teaching schoolkids to do solar lighting

Back in early 2006, I wandered into a school in Zanzibar (TZ) and delighted in seeing a classroom full of kids assembling solar lights (Solux - Hans can tell you more) with the guidance of an enthusiastic teacher. They leased the lanterns out to local villagers and had a PV panel on the roof for recharging.

There was curriculum around it as well.

Here are a few pictures....

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Permalink Reply by Yotam Ariel on March 12, 2013 at 1:13am

Wow!

Permalink Reply by Hans Mutzbauer on March 13, 2013 at 2:10pm

Thank you, Evan, I really enjoy to see our first "baby" SOLUX II in the field use.

SOLUX II was the solar lamp, the NGO SOLUX started with before nearly 25 years. The vision was to bring not "only" solar light to rural areas but also to create a few jobs, to bring training and education with the lamps and to generate at least a little business.

SOLUX II used energy-saving-bulbs, operated by a 6 Volt NCD battery pack and a "handmade" solar module. On one of the pictures, you can see that the frame of the module is made from wood.

Such lamps are still in use, sometimes we receive requests for battery replacements or new bulbs.

This lamp is still available, in the meantime with LED, with NiMH batteries, with a glass/aluminum module, but still supplied as a kit to be assembled in local workshops.

A very engaged partner operates actually a workshop project in Peru. I enclose a brief project description.

The SOLUX-idea is today, after 25 years, still alive.

Here a few pictures, taken in a school in Germany one week ago. The school finances and assembles the lanterns as a present for a partner-school in Tanzania:

Next step can be to assemble lanterns in the partner school with the assistance of the new "solar specialists".

In the first step, the young German partners learned a lot about the life in rural areas in Africa, the importance of clean light, basic electronics - and finally we had a lot of fun together, just see the faces.

Attachments:

PVA Infoblatt Solarlampen Englisch.pdf, 973 KB

Permalink Reply by Yotam Ariel on March 13, 2013 at 5:04pm

Very nice!

Permalink Reply by Hans Mutzbauer on March 14, 2013 at 4:10am

Another nice project:

Students of the Kepler-Gymnasium (college) Pforzheim have solar lamps brought to Gando. Some of the lamps were assembled on site: the Kepler-initiated student teachers and pupils from Gando on the assembly of the SOLUX lamps.